Militant attacks on international soldiers in Afghanistan Thursday left several civilians wounded and nine rebels dead in return fire that included air strikes, officials said.In one attack, a suicide bomber ran at a NATO patrol in the town of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, and detonated explosives that he was carrying, deputy police chief Faridullah Khan told AFP. The international troops suffered no casualties but four young civilian men were wounded, he said from the town which is about 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of Kabul.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has US and Romanian soldiers in Qalat.
No one immediately claimed responsibility but the attack was similar to scores of others carried out by the extremist Taliban movement, which makes heavy use of bombings in an insurgency against the Western-backed government.
Also in Qalat, Taliban militants attacked a joint Afghan and ISAF patrol on the main road travelling through the province, Khan said. The ambush sparked a clash and ISAF aircraft were called in. "Nine Taliban were killed in the aerial bombing. Their bodies were left at the battlefield and we have the bodies," Khan said. Afghan and NATO troops suffered no casualties.